Colima Key Lime Tree (Limón Colima)

About the Colima Key Lime Tree (Limón Colima)

This is the small, round, intensely aromatic lime that Mexican cooks consider the real thing. Limón Colima, known abroad as the key or Mexican lime, has thin skin, a few seeds and a sharp, perfumed juice that makes salsas, micheladas and key lime pie taste unmistakably Mexican. The tree is compact and twiggy, with small leaves and short thorns, and it loves heat: it is happiest in the hot lowlands of the Pacific coast, the Gulf and the Yucatán Peninsula. Expect fruit in flushes through the year, heaviest after the rains begin.

How to Care for It

Give it the hottest, sunniest spot you have and well-drained soil; it does not like cold, wet feet. Water deeply when the top few centimetres are dry, more often while flowering and fruiting. Feed three times a year with a citrus fertiliser rich in micronutrients. Wear gloves when pruning, since the branches carry short thorns, and thin crowded interior twigs to let light in. Protect young trees from any frost.

Fresh limes for every taco and juice from your own tree. Persian, Colima and criollo limes, Valencia and navel oranges, five mandarins, grapefruit, pomelo and Yucatán's own lima de chiche, grown on our farms and shipped by DHL to most of Mexico.

Growing Profile

Botanical name

Citrus × aurantiifolia

Family

Rutaceae

Native to

Southeast Asia; naturalised in Mexico for centuries, with Colima and Michoacán as classic growing regions

Mature height

2.5–4 m

Plant spacing

4 m

Years to first fruit

2–3 years

Light

Full sun

Water

Moderate

Cold tolerance

down to 0 °C

Best climates

Humid tropics, Dry tropics

Grows in a pot

Yes

Ships from

Our farms in Yucatán & Chiapas